*press samples
ELF Cosmetics is an affordable cruelty free and vegan brand from the USA. They recently launched the 16HR Camo Concealer in Australia and I was kindly sent 6 shades to swatch and review for you. I wouldn’t be able to afford to buy 6 of one product to share with you, so I really appreciate receiving these, and I’ve made sure to compare them to other concealers I have so that you can find the best match for you.
The 16HR Camo Concealer from ELF is described as being a full coverage, 16 hour wear concealer that can conceal, correct, contour and highlight. It’s also supposed to be highly pigmented, light weight, matte and won’t sink in to fine lines or creases. Each tube contains 6 ml of product and is available on the ELF Australia website for A$15, or on shelves in Kmart Aus stores for A$10. It is also available from the ELF USA website for US$5. It comes with a large doe foot applicator that has an indent on the end, to collect the maximum amount of concealer with each dip. I personally prefer a smaller doe foot applicator, as I would prefer to put less product on, and dip back in for more, rather than apply too much. It’s not a deal-breaker though, I just wipe the applicator off on the neck of the tube before applying the concealer. The ELF 16HR Camo Concealer is matte and long wearing. It is a product that I have to use a makeup remover, or double cleanse to remove at the end of the day, as it stays on my skin really well. Being matte, it will emphasise any flaky areas or dryness, so I don’t like to use it under my eyes. I do really like to use it on red spots, blemishes and hyper-pigmentation. I do use the smallest amount that I can to cover the area, as it can start to look a little bit cakey if too much is applied.
ELF’s Camo Concealer is available in 9 shades in Australia, Fair Warm (fair with yellow undertones), Fair Beige (fair with neutral undertones), Light Sand (light with neutral undertones), Light Peach (light with rosy peach undertones), Light Beige (light with golden beige undertones), Medium Peach (medium with peach undertones), Medium Sand (medium with neutral undertones), Medium Beige (medium with golden beige undertones) and Tan Sand (tan with olive undertones). In the USA, the Camo concealer is available in 18 shades. There is one shade lighter than the Aus shades, Fair Rose, and 8 shades darker than the Aus shades, Tan Walnut, Tan Latte, Deep Olive, Deep Chestnut, Deep Cinnamon, Rich Chocolate, Rich Cocoa and Rich Ebony. I’m unsure why these shades aren’t available in Australia. It’s disappointing that they aren’t, as very fair shades and deep shades are very rare finds in affordable concealers here, so there is absolutely a gap in the market that needs to be filled. I do however really appreciate that they created shades with varying undertones. One of my biggest problems with finding base products, is that when brands do make a shade light enough for my skin, it is always very yellow based, and that just doesn’t work with my very pink skin tone. The shades do tend towards the yellow side of the spectrum, even the ones described as being neutral, but fair beige does have a pink undertone, and Fair Rose is described as having that too. Being so fair, this concealer won’t work as either a highlighter or contour for me, as the darker shades of it are far too warm for me to be able to use them like that, but I would like to know if you have been able to use this concealer in that way.
Update: I have been in contact with ELF Aus and they are listening to the feedback about the available shade range. ELF Aus have requested the deeper shades from the USA multiple times, but the requests have been denied due to popularity in the USA. They have however confirmed with me that they will be receiving Tan Latte, Deep Olive and Deep Chesnut this spring, and they do want to stock the whole shade range, but that is dependant on the US management team. I was very happy to hear this, and hopefully the US team will approve all the shades in the range, so that Aussies can enjoy the whole line soon.
To see how the shade range compares to other brands, I did a swatch comparison. All concealers were completely dry before I took the photos to ensure you could how they would actually look. I compared, Colourpop Cosmetics No Filter Matte Concealer in Fair 02, ELF 16 HR Camo Concealer in Fair Warm, Colourpop Cosmetics No Filter Matte Concealer in Fair 04, ELF 16 HR Camo Concealer in Fair Beige, Makeup Revolution Conceal and Define Concealer in C0.5, Colourpop Cosmetics No Filter Matte Concealer in Fair 06, Tarte Shape Tape Contour Concealer in Fair Beige, ELF 16HR Camo Concealer in Light Peach, Urban Decay Naked Skin Weightless Complete Coverage Concealer in Fair Neutral, Makeup Revolution Conceal and Define Concealer C1, Colourpop Cosmetics No Filter Matte Concealer in Light 12, ELF 16 HR Camo Concealer in Light Sand, ELF 16 HR Camo Concealer in Light Beige and ELF 16 HR Camo Concealer in Medium Peach. The whole range of the Colourpop Cosmetics No Filter Matte Concealers are swatched in my blog post review of them.
The shades tend to skew a little lighter than other brands. When I asked on Instagram what people thought of this concealer, there were multiple comments about how light the medium shades were compared to medium shades in other brands. The fair shades however, aren’t as fair as the fair shades in other brands. When looking at the swatches you can see that there isn’t a big difference between each shade category (fair, light, medium). On my skin tone, there is no difference between light sand and medium peach, and they’re both lighter than Colourpop’s Light 12 shade. I’m not sure if this continues in the deep shade categories though. The shade that I use is Fair Beige, however, Fair Rose sounds like it would be a better match for my skin tone. The concealer colours that I like best are Fair 06 from the Colourpop No Filter Matte Concealer range and 0.5 in the Makeup Revolution Conceal and Define range. ELF’s fair beige is darker and less pink than those concealers. The 16HR Camo Concealers dry down much darker than they appear when first applied to the skin. This isn’t oxidisation, it’s just a drying difference, but be aware of this if you are going to try and shade match with fresh swatches.
The ELF 16HR Camo Concealer is a great affordable, matte concealer, that is worth trying. It does have a drying formula, so I can’t use it under my eyes (still looking for the perfect concealer for that), but it works well on blemishes, as long as there is no dry skin in the area. It is cruelty free, vegan, long wearing, and has a wide range of shades available in the USA. The majority of affordable concealer and foundation shades sit within the light-medium range in Australia. The market is seriously lacking diversity, so its disappointing that there are these darker shades in this concealer but they aren’t available here. I hope all the shades are available here soon as I would really like to try Fair Rose, as that sounds like a better shade match for my skin tone. I don’t see a lot of reviews on ELF products, so I haven’t really known what to try. I do however, really want to try the Primer Infused Blushes and the new Poreless Putty Primer, which I will review here if I can get my hands on it. You can sign up for email updates, and get my new blog posts sent to your inbox, and also find me on social media – Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and Twitter.
What are your favourite products from ELF? Have you tried the 16HR Camo Concealer? What did you think of it?
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